One Paragraph Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Three hundred and twenty-ninth film: Little Miss Sunshine, the utterly delightful 2006 genre-avoiding film about a dysfunctional but endearing family that tries a lot harder than they need to to prove that they’re better than most people who attend juvenile beauty contests. I can’t think of a movie with better casting, with Toni Collette doing her very best stress-flustered matriarch, Steve Carell doing his best sardonic world-weariness, Greg Kinnear being his best embarrassing dad in excruciating shorts, Alan Arkin being (briefly) the best heroin-addicted beauty contest coach-slash-grandpa, Paul Dano bringing ultimate taciturn teen angst, and Abigail Breslin being so Olive that it’s impossible to believe she’s acting. Totally character-driven with an obvious what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-winner theme, the sub-plot of wow-this-dad-is-a-gigantic-arsehole seeps through as well, until his redemption to a Rick James Super Freak soundtrack. I keep imagining how awful this might have been with anyone else in control, but as it is it’s a sweat-banded little miracle. Yep. Four and three-quarter devastating colour blindness tests out of five.